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Windy day with a chill in the air visiting the St Ives auction viewing and marvelling at the old cattle stalls which are no longer used before this afternoon spending time with my children, wiring my garage with a PIR light and extending Di’s ironing lead as floods kill boys in pot-holes and culverts
A sound sleep after tumbling with Diana for a while and then woken up early with my morning tea. I came round whilst listening to the radio programme ‘On Your Farm’ and was very interested in their story of young farmers and agriculturalists studying at the VSO (Voluntary Services Overseas) college to help the world food shortages by spending time there. I admired the altruism and generosity of these people, who believe the problems can be solved, if only someone actually does something about it. Then breakfast of toast & fruit juice as normal and to quickly scan the day’s paper and mail. We had the Inland Revenue tax demand for over £1/2m on Thursday and since that, gilts have fallen, which is a pity. All the papers full of Westland and Heseltine and the story dominates the business and political news.
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A trip to Cambridge with visits to Belinda’s and The Copper Kettle whilst Diana has her contact lens appointment and Daniel worries about Aquabean sinking but we install a new bilge pump pipe upon our return and he is able to re-float and restore the vessel happily. This as The Westland Affair is elevated to a drama with Heseltine the subject of the tyrant’s wrot who is also oblivious of the implications of abolishing the Metropolitan Councils.
A much better night’s sleep, but reluctantly awake to our new early morning schedule, with the Financial Times for company. Down to breakfast with the others after also listening to the Today programme on Radio 4. Toast and fruit juice as usual and Di starts flustering to get us all ready on time. Unfortunately, I am delayed 15 mins by Caroline grooming herself opposite, as I watched the weathervane indicating almost due south. It had been a wet and windy night and the river is coming up again. Daniel’s boat, Aquabean, is now listing badly to one side and he tearfully tells me it is ‘sunk’, which is an exaggeration. All ready and off to Cambridge by car, after dropping Debbie off at the local school. A fair journey listening to Daniel’s cassette tape, but Della was restless and continued the whole day rather difficult to please.
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Tending the doves on a milder morning as Debbie went back to school, Diana went to Keep Fit, her parents came to help with Daniella and Daniel disrupted the house with friends playing hide and seek. This as I tried to work on the house, Heseltine resigns from Thatcher’s Cabinet over Westland, Unemployment has risen to more than 3 ¼ million Police are armed with sub-machine guns at Heathrow
An averagely poor night and an early start to the day as we were all awake at 6.30am, being Debbie’s first school day. I lay groggily in bed for a while listening to Today on radio 4 and then ventured slowly down to use the bathroom. As I showered before retiring, I only washed and shaved and then opened the house for the builders and got down to the last main circuits on my alarm system. This morning I tidied up the cable in the loft and put the ironing room and corridor floorboards back together. No sign of the plumber, who was to do some work today and so I ploughed on, laying the cables for the ironing room and rear hall French doors, letting the cables into the woodwork and around the floor once again. Out to the doves on a much more settled morning. The snow was fast melting away, the air still and, though it was still cold, it was by no means as chilly as of late.
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A busy day today after a poor night with Debbie and her friends marauding about The Hayling View which is now ideal for Hide and Seek! The Westland affair comes to a head, Thatcher is preoccupied with security and the policeman who shot infant John Shorthouse is eventually charged with manslaughter today. UK gilts take a pasting and Wall Street sustains record one day losses as the UK clearing banks cut their base rate by 1%
A poor night for both me and Diana. The central heating pumps were whining away and we couldn’t get comfortable until the early hours. A late start this morning and 7.45am before I got my morning tea and paper. Still, stayed in bed for 10 mins to read it. The main financial news yesterday was the declining pound and increase in inter-bank interest rates – gilts took a pasting. Quickly washed and dressed, breakfast, and then to clear up a little from yesterday and make a start to my work. I finished off the internal upstairs zone, renamed it as zone 4, and then it was time for lunch. I had taken Diana and the girls to St Neots as well this morning, got some money from the Abbey National and some groceries for Diana. The weather is still snowy, but definitely getting milder.